Halt The Salt

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redcaretta

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Location
Thailand
# of dives
100 - 199
Dear Friends/Colleagues

I've just learnt of a very worrying project via www.theaquaplanet.com for an area that should be World Heritage listed.

Here's a bit of information to see if you would share my concerns;

We have deep concerns about a salt mine proposed for our precious Western Australian coast. We need your help now to stop this unsustainable project going any further.

Exmouth Gulf - one of Western Australia's most environmentally important areas - is under potential threat from a plan to build one of the world's biggest salt mines which would cover 411 square kilometres.

You can help by signing the submission at: http://www.haltthesalt.org.au/hts_submission/hts_submission.php

Exmouth Gulf is one of the richest marine environments in Australia. It is a nursery for humpback whales, dugong and turtles. The mangrove systems on the eastern margins are areas of high primary productivity feeding and restocking both the Gulf and the famed nearby Ningaloo Reef.

Its World Heritage values have already been identified. It must be protected.

The Halt The Salt campaign and AMCS believe the risks associated with this massive project are too great and the project must be abandoned.

Widespread and deep concern among many organisations has led the State's peak conservation groups to join forces for the first time with peak commercial and recreational fishing interests in the Gulf to stop the project.

Threats include:
Potential loss of mangroves and associated biota such as algal mats in an area of recognised significance for these systems.
Potential shipping and salt production impact on marine fauna such as whales and dugongs and their supporting habitats.
Potential impact on marine and terrestrial nutrient inputs introduced by the presence of the salt field and the significance of this to the Gulf’s wider ecosystem.
Development in an area recommended to be set aside as a marine conservation reserve.


Straits Salts' proposal involves the extraction of huge quantities of seawater via two or more massive intake pump stations. These pumps would also remove vast numbers of weakly swimming prawn and fish larvae and post larvae fish from the Gulf ecosystem and the fisheries.

The proposal will involve the impoundment of enormous quantities of toxic bitterns, the highly concentrated by-product of solar salt product. This material could then enter the Gulf ecosystem through seepage or wall failure, potentially resulting in a major 'kill' event.

While visiting http://www.haltthesalt.org.au you can meet the residents, see the landscape (some excellent photography) and read more about the area and the problems that this proposal will offer the area.

Other ways to help are also suggested on the site.

This is what I've just supported, here's the web site - www.haltthesalt.org.au please go for it.

Redcaretta
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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